I was in Carrickmacross last week, visiting my uncle, Brian Mac a’ Bhaird. You might have seen him on Prime Time earlier in the month, with his wife Sheila, and Romy, their youngest daughter. Romy has cerebral palsy, and faces severe limitations in living her daily life, limitations her extraordinary parents, siblings, and neighbours have…
Notebook Last Sunday two young men called to see me after Mass. They’re students, sharing accommodation and, apart from their studies, they want to grow in holiness, to become the men God made them to be. They told me they had cleared a space on their bookshelves for books that would help them in this…
Notebook Every summer Dominican friars from various European countries visit our priories to work on their English. One thing that perplexes them is the apparently rude health of Catholic education here. How, despite centuries of persecution and recent decline, they ask, are there so many Catholic schools? And how is it that they are…
Notebook I was at a social event recently with some high-powered academics. I mentioned at a certain point that a lot of my research and teaching centres on the theology of St Thomas Aquinas, and half the group gave me a blank look: “Who?” I’m sure the readers of The Irish Catholic don’t need…